


Loud and Clear

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Foxtrot [110]
Category: Dollhouse, Stargate Atlantis, Thoughtcrimes
Genre: AU, Crossover, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-01
Updated: 2016-05-01
Packaged: 2018-06-05 19:00:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6717217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the comment_fic prompt: <i>Stargate: Atlantis, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay, Telepathy</i>.</p><p>Rodney's date with Imprint Brendan Dean, NSA agent, has got to be less weird than the date with Imprint Dom. Right?</p><p>Set post-series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Loud and Clear

After the seriously awkward - but informative - date with Dom, Rodney was wary of his next date with Brendan, the NSA agent, but Brendan arranged for them to meet at a diner downtown that Rodney knew Daniel frequented and had good milkshakes, so he figured he was safe. It was a public place, so nothing freaky could happen (no whips or chains or leather), and Brendan was, by all accounts, a nice and charming guy.  
  
Brendan, wearing a Scooby Doo shirt and jeans and looking pretty darn cute, was already sitting at a booth, sipping at a glass of water and studying a menu. He stood up when Rodney approached the table, smoothed down his shirt like he was nervous (dress casual, Evan had told Rodney, Brendan’s straight).  
  
“Thanks for coming,” Brendan said.  
  
Rodney sat down opposite him. “Of course. This was my idea and all.”  
  
Brendan resumed his seat, took a big gulp of water. “Listen, this is going to be kind of weird -”  
  
Rodney’s stomach churned. “Weird? What kind of weird? Joe said you weren’t like Dom.”  
  
Brendan huffed. “No one’s like Dom. Just -”  
  
“Brendan! Long time no see.” A beautiful woman came over to the table. She had soft brown skin, big dark eyes, soft-looking wavy black hair.  
  
Brendan stood up and let her pull him into a hug. She hung onto him for a long moment, and Rodney’s throat closed. Did Brendan have a girlfriend? Did John have an arrangement like that for some of the imprints? Would Rodney have to _share_ John’s body?  
  
The woman slid into the booth beside Brendan with complete disregard for his personal space. She smiled at Rodney, and there was really no way Rodney could compete with that.  
  
“Hi, you must be Rodney McKay.” The woman offered a hand. “I’m Freya McCallister. I was Brendan’s partner when he was with the NSA.”  
  
“Nice to meet you,” Rodney said faintly.  
  
“I know, I’m a third wheel on your big gay date,” Freya said. “Must be super weird, right? It’s about to get weirder.”  
  
“I don’t do group sex,” Rodney said automatically (which would later be proven untrue, but that wasn’t the point).  
  
Freya raised her eyebrows at Brendan, who shrugged and gestured for her to take the lead.  
  
“Listen,” Freya said, “Brendan told me this date is a big deal. You want to try for a long-term relationship with the primary imprint. That’s a big deal, and something Brendan will have to live with for the rest of his life. So he wanted me to come and help vet you. I mean, you think this whole date all the imprints thing is you vetting John. Don’t forget, all of the imprints are real people, and they’re vetting you right back.”  
  
“How do you fit into all this?” Rodney asked.  
  
“Brendan didn’t tell you about his time with the NSA?” Freya cast Brendan a look.  
  
“It never came up,” Brendan mumbled.  
  
Freya smacked him on the shoulder, and there was something Jeannie-like in the gesture. “How can something that big just ‘never come up’?”  
  
Rodney eyed Brendan warily. He’d been lulled into quite the false sense of security by the bright lights and homey-ness of this diner. “John said the Dollhouse would turn a bunch of actives into NSA agents or CIA agents or FBI agents or whatever they needed when they had to contain a big area or do an investigation in-house.”  
  
“That’s true,” Freya said, “but Brendan was also part of an NSA training program for people like me.”  
  
“Like you?” Rodney asked. “Are you a former -?”  
  
“Dollhouse active. No.” Freya flipped open Brendan’s menu. “I’m a telepath.”  
  
Rodney froze.  
  
“Don’t worry,” Freya said, scanning the menu. “I’m not reading your mind right now. It’s rude to do that all the time. But, with your permission, I’d like to take a peek at your thoughts. For the duration of the date. For Brendan’s sake, of course. And John’s, obviously.”  
  
Rodney made a strangled noise.  
  
“I hear you’re the smartest man in two galaxies,” Freya continued. “Your mind must be a fascinating place.”  
  
Rodney blinked at her. “Telepathy? Is real?”  
  
“This isn’t the first time you’ve encountered it,” Brendan reminded him quietly.  
  
“On Earth it is,” Rodney snapped. He swallowed hard.  
  
“Look,” Brendan said, “if you don’t want to, you really don’t have to. It’s just - I trust Freya with my life.”  
  
Freya looked at him sidelong, curled a hand over his. “Wow,” she said. “That’s really how you all feel about him?”

Brendan ducked his head, scrubbed a hand over his face, and Freya squeezed his hand.

“All right,” Freya said, “I’ll stop laying it on so thick.”

Rodney goggled at her. “Are you reading his mind _right now?_ ”

“I can read the mind of anyone I can see, if I so choose,” Freya said. “Distance is no object. Give me a rifle scope or a telescope or someone on a television screen, and as long as I can see them in real time, I know what’s going on upstairs.”

“How does that work?”

Freya shrugged. “I’m so scientist. But I am hungry. So, how about we eat?”

As it turned out, on top of being a telepathic NSA agent, Freya was also something of a math genius, and the three of them spent the rest of the night playing Prime/Not Prime between bites of food.

At the end of the night, while Rodney was helping Freya into her coat, he asked in a low voice, “You peeked into my mind, didn’t you?”

“Didn’t have to,” she said. “You were broadcasting loud and clear. You love him a lot, and I know you’ll be good to him. Take care of him, all right?”

Rodney nodded, stepped back and let her say her goodbyes to Brendan.

He wondered what else this series of dates was going to bring him.


End file.
